Into The Darkness I Will Follow
by HolyMuffins
Summary: When two archangels take Castiel from the hospital to open purgatory, Dean and Sam have to find him quickly. Dean and Cas are eventually pulled into purgatory, and have to find some way back home. Post 7x17.
1. Prologue

A/N: I don't own any of the characters in the story. They all belong to the creators of Supernatural.

This first chapter just sets up the conflict of the story, and the real story actually starts in the next chapter. Thanks for reading! Please read and review.

Prologue

As a general rule, archangels did not involve themselves with the problems on Earth, unless God commanded it. This was the current stance taken by the remaining archangels. In the absence of Michael and following the death of Raphael, the earth was entrusted with its own survival, with limited divine intervention.

However, the recent intrusion of the Leviathans into the business of heaven had changed this policy considerably.

Dick Roman sat down in his expensive leather chair with a sigh, having recently dealt with the insubordination of several of his inferiors on the east coast. A few of his subordinates had lost control of themselves and devoured an entire office building in Michigan. Luckily, the incident was contained locally, and with his connections, Roman was quickly able to crush any sort of national outcry, but he had been forced to bib the offending members of the party. He held no personal feeling of regard for these compatriots, but losing members of his already limited number was an annoyance to be avoided.

Roman rubbed his eyes and took a swig of whiskey from his cut-glass tumbler. He had no physical need for sustenance, but found the bitter taste pleasing to his limited human senses. He glanced around his sparse, modern office with approval. After the disgusting chaos of purgatory, he enjoyed the order of this albeit primeval world. Unlike other members of the Leviathans, Roman did not despise taking human form. He found that the sense of being encased in a physical form provided a feeling of control that he found pleasing. The other Leviathans were all too quick to eat humans, but they didn't understand the ramifications of this act and what it could do to his plan.

With a crash of thunder and gust of wind that Roman found ridiculously dramatic, two men suddenly appeared in front of his desk. Dick Roman sighed and raised his dark, teeming eyes to meet those of the archangels in front of him.

One of the angels was slight and had a shock of white hair atop his head. He stood with his eyes slightly downcast, but instead of exhibiting a sense of humility, the man possessed an inner might that suggested he could level an entire building if the need arose. This was Sealtiel, the intercessor of God.

The other was large and brawny, with short brown hair and hard eyes. He stood at a sturdy stance, glaring directly at the creature in front of him. Jegudiel had no patience within him for ambiguities or inaction, and believed the situation on Earth had gone on too long without intervention.

"Your ringers have slaughtered a prophet of the Lord." Jegudiel stated without preamble.

Roman stood up slowly, meeting the height of Jegudiel. "Yes, they have. I have no need of prophets in my new world order."

"The slaughter of a prophet is unforgivable. Your insubordination will be punished." Sealtiel broke in, raising his cold white eyes to meet those of Roman's black orbs.

"It is not considered insubordination if I have no superior authority to defy." Roman stated simply. This statement angered Jegudiel, and he stepped forward with a thunderous expression.

"God is superior to all beings in the cosmos. And you would do well to remember that. To me, you are merely slime underfoot. I will not hesitate to crush you."

Dick shook his head. "I don't come from either of your God's realms. My origin is separated from your authority."

Sealtiel spoke up from behind Jegudiel's furious expression, exhibiting cool authority. "Purgatory is contained inside the cosmos, and as such is under our control. Earth is also not under yours. We will not tolerate you destroying God's work."

Sealtiel raised a hand and waved it toward Jegudiel, who stepped forward with his arm outstretched, prepared to smite the Leviathan and send him back to purgatory. However, Roman reached down to his desk, sweeping aside the papers held there, and pressed his hand to an Enochian sigil placed on the mahogany. The archangels disappeared in a holy blast of white light, their hair seeming as if on fire, and furious expressions on their faces.

Dick Roman strode to the telephone, ready to contact his second-in-command. He knew that the archangels would return before long, and next time they would be prepared. Roman knew he had to prevent them from distorting his plans.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Castiel opened his bloodshot eyes and looked blankly at the ceiling. He had no physical need for sleep, but found himself over the past weeks wishing that he was able to. Lucifer was unrelenting in his attempts to elicit a response from him. Castiel would be sitting alone in the room when it would suddenly catch on fire, leaving him frantically trying to extinguish the flames, or he would find himself teetering on the precipice of an impossible drop. Castiel was aware that it was irrational to feel fear concerning Lucifer. He was only a figment of his mind, however, ever since entering his human vessel, Castiel did find himself feeling a certain amount of human emotion.

While in heaven, Castiel still felt emotions as deeply as humans, but they were not as easily accessible as they were when in his vessel on earth. He found himself affected by feelings of love and fear increasingly the longer he remained on earth. Many of the angels found this feeling of rash emotion unpleasant, and for this reason they spent more time in their celestial form to avoid losing their certainty. However, Castiel found the emotions he experienced on earth to be pleasing. Although these emotions led to his doubt and subsequent fall from heaven, he felt the positive aspects of these outweighed the negative.

Castiel was not used to feeling uncertain. When he took Lucifer into his mind, he felt sure he would be able to separate Lucifer from reality, however the longer he spent with Lucifer constantly dogging him, it was harder to distinguish the difference.

Only a little while after entering the hospital, Castiel witnessed Alastair walking down the hallway towards one of the patients. Castiel felt a surge of fury, remembering the last time they had met, when he had almost killed both Dean and himself. Castiel strode down the hallway prepared to smite the offending demon. However, Meg and two other orderlies appeared and restrained him before he could proceed. Castiel would have pushed past them, but he realized at the last minute that the white-eyed demon he had witnessed only moments before was now a cowering man in a patient's robe. Horrified at the drastic action he had almost committed, Castiel allowed the orderlies to take him back to his own room.

Since that point, they had kept him under the influence of calming sedatives to prevent him hurting another person. He had found it difficult to concentrate from that moment on. Lucifer took advantage of his confusion and plagued him with images of the staff and inmates being slaughtered in a new original manner every day. Castiel found these scenes very upsetting, and decided to not venture outside his room unless he was required to.

Lucifer did not leave him alone, however. Instead of plaguing him with horrific images, he began talking to him, which was in many ways even worse.

Lucifer stood at the foot of his iron-railed bed, hands placed at either end, and smiled cruelly when Castiel opened his eyes.

"Good evening, brother. I was beginning to think you had tried to ditch me, which would be quite rude. You would be forcing me to set your bed on fire again." Lucifer uttered with a certain amount of glee.

Castiel refused to say anything, although he knew this would only lead to further attempts to engage him.

"Did you see the news this morning?" Lucifer asked, picking up a fork and spinning it in his hand, worryingly close to Cas's head. "An entire office building full of people have been killed. Animal attack. That sure sounds familiar."

Castiel turned with a worried expression, but then tried to pretend he hadn't taken Lucifer's bait.

However, Lucifer had noticed his slip up. "Yes, eaten alive. Must have been horrible for them. Can't you just imagine their screams? Having the sinew ripped from their bones while they watched. Sounds a little familiar, though. Where _have_ I heard that before?" Lucifer scratched his ear and pretended he was thinking. "Oh, of course! When you killed all those people at the election office."

Castiel sat up quickly. "I did not kill those people. It was the Leviathans inside my vessel."

Lucifer laughed. "Oh, but it was still your body. And you managed to release the Leviathans on the world. I wonder how many people they have killed so far? Five hundred, six hundred? A thousand?"

"Stop." Castiel muttered quietly.

"How many people is that? Almost the population of an entire town. How does it feel to be responsible for so many innocent people's deaths? You know, they say _I_ was bad, but I don't think I ever managed to kill that many people. Not this millenia, anyway."

Castiel stood up to face Lucifer. Without his ever-present trench coat, he seemed a somewhat diminished figure from his former strength. "I never wanted those people to die. This is why I am serving my penance."

Lucifer placed his hand on his chest, looking affronted. "Penance? Are you saying spending time with me isn't enjoyable? I have to admit, I'm hurt. I mean, we're family, after all."

Castiel shook his head. "You are not my family."

Lucifer raised his eyebrows. "No? Oh, of course, I forgot. You found yourself a new family. Well, they really stuck around for you, didn't they?"

Castiel lowered his eyes. "I do not blame Dean for leaving me here. It was my fault Sam's mind was unhinged in the first place. I chose this as punishment myself." With those words, Castiel lay back down, turning his back on Lucifer. To his relief, Lucifer did not say anything, and Castiel believed that for the moment, he was gone.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The tinny tone of 'Back in Black' rang out through the quiet motel room from a cell phone. After a few seconds, the song continued, and Sam groaned, awakened prematurely.

"Dean, get your damn phone." he grumbled. "I'm trying to sleep."

In the other bed, Dean reached his hand out for the phone without opening his eyes. After fumbling around, he took hold of the phone and brought it to his ear.

"What?" he answered gruffly, annoyed at being woken up.

"It's Meg. There's a problem. You need to come back to the hospital." The demon's irritated voice rang across the phone line.

Dean rubbed his eyes and answered her. "What kind of problem? Did you drink some holy water by accident? Because that's not my kind of problem."

"I'd only drink holy water if you were around. There are archangels in town."

Dean sat up quickly, all traces of sleep gone from his voice. "What are archangels doing in Indiana?"

"I'm not sure, but they killed some demons over in Colorado looking for your angel boy. And I assume they will be here any minute now, since they don't waste so much time driving a piece-of-crap car all over the country."

Dean ignored the dig about his car, and slipped out of bed, starting to pull on some jeans and a shirt. "Why would they be looking for Cas?" he asked worriedly. "You put those sigils up, right?"

Meg sighed on the other side of the line. "Yes, I did that weeks ago. The whole place is so full of Enochian sigils it looks like it's been graffitied. I suggest you get your ass over here as soon as you can, because those sigils won't hold for very long against a pair of pissed-off archangels." She hung up, and Dean tossed the phone onto the bed, throwing his varied belongings into his duffel bag.

"Up and at 'em, Sammy. We need to get to Indiana as fast as we can. We have a long way to drive." Sam sat up, a worried expression creasing his face.

"What's going on?" Dean threw his duffel bag at him, forcing him to put his hands up and catch it in midair.

"Oh, nothing. Just angels being dicks. I'll tell you on the way." Dean pulled on his boots and walked outside to start up the car.

Five minutes later, they were on the highway headed toward Indiana. Dean hadn't even bothered to turn on the tape deck, and stared intently at the road in front of him, hands clutching the wheel.

Sam glanced at Dean with concern. It was never a good situation when Dean refused to listen to music. Ever since Sam had gotten his mind fixed by Cas, Dean had thrown himself into their job, with a zeal that was becoming increasingly worrying. Besides calling Meg every few days to check in, Dean didn't mention Cas at at all, and any effort to mention him ended with a grunt and a dig about Sam's musical taste.

Although he had been initially angry with Cas for breaking his mind, after fixing it, Sam had more or less forgiven him, figuring that he had fixed what he had broken in the first place.

Dean, however, was a different matter. Under normal circumstances, if somebody had released Lucifer on his brother's mind, he never would have forgiven them. Family was the most important thing to Dean, and he would have, and had, died for his family. Anything that threatened his family was instantly a dire enemy of Dean's. However, Castiel was different. He was very nearly part of the family, and the fact that he had tried to redeem himself made it even harder to condemn him. There was a part of Dean that wanted to curse Castiel and leave him alone in the hospital, but the other side of him couldn't leave his friend after taking on the immense burden he had. So Dean threw himself into hunting because he could concentrate on the easy challenge of torching bones and drawing salt rings instead of dwelling on the betrayal of his friend.

The next evening, the Impala finally pulled into the hospital's parking lot, the tapering fingers of the setting sun reaching out to pull them closer against the fading sunlight. Sam unfolded himself from the front seat and stretched his legs, while Dean strode immediately toward the front door. As he got closer, he saw Meg standing outside the doorway, a cigarette between her fingers, blowing smoke circles into the chilled air.

"It's about time you got here." she uttered, crushing the butt underneath her shoe. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up."

Dean frowned, still uneasy about working with a demon. "We came as fast as we could. Are the sigils still holding?"

Meg nodded, flicking her dark eyes unconsciously. "Last time I checked, yeah. But there were these light storms earlier on that shorted the power. I guess the angels weren't expecting Enochian sigils to be in their way. They'll be back soon enough, though. You know as well as anybody that you can't keep an angel from something it wants."

Dean gave her a dirty look, and walked through the double-sided hospital doors, followed by Sam and Meg.

An hour later, Sam and Dean were sitting in the waiting room in nervous anticipation. Sam was trying to flip through a magazine, but found it hard to concentrate. Dean didn't even try to pretend. He was leaning forward in his seat, as if at any moment ready to leap to his feet and join a fight. He drummed his fingers nervously on his knee and hummed 'Stairway to Heaven' on repeat. Meg had to return to her job, and they hadn't seen her in a while.

Sam was in the middle of flipping through an article about the benefits of hand-mowing your lawn when the lights flickered. The two of them were on their feet instantly, eyes turned toward the hallway that led down to the locked ward. Dean fingered the knife in his jacket, ready to pull it out and draw a banishment sigil on the wall.

The receptionist at the front desk glanced up at the brothers when they attempted to walk past her to the ward. "You two can't go back there, sorry."

At that moment, there was an almighty crash that emanated from the back of the hospital, as if an elephant were crashing against the back wall. The receptionist gave them a fleeting glance, and then ran back to find out what was happening. Sam caught the door with his foot, and they entered the dimmed hallway with trepidation.

Halfway down the hallway, there was another crash, and the lights flickered again, this time one of the bulbs cracking and scattering sparks on the ground. They hurried closer to Castiel's room, and glanced quickly through the window. Castiel was awake, sitting upright on the bed, back straight, staring intently at the window, his back to the door. He didn't notice the Winchesters outside his room, or if he did, he didn't make any indication he had.

Dean wheeled around to face the end of the hallway, knife at the ready to create the sigil if need be. Sam was unsure if they would even be able to do anything to stop the archangels when they did show up, but he didn't say anything, because it was too late to formulate a different plan.

There was a third crash, and this time it was so loud that it shook the entire building, waking up quite a few patients throughout the hospital. They could faintly hear the sound of plaster breaking, and braced themselves, knowing the sigils were broken.

With a burst of static electricity, a heavily muscled man appeared at the end of the hallway, his aura crackling with barely repressed energy. Sam hurried down the hallway with a shout, determined to distract the angel while Dean drew the sigil on the wall.

For a moment, the large angel glanced down at the tall human running towards him. Dean took this opportunity to slice his knife into the flesh of his forearm. However, before Dean could draw more than a thin line on his arm, the angel lifted his right arm and pointed it toward Dean. The knife jerked out of his hand, and Dean felt himself thrown to the side, hitting the wall. Then, the angel simply sidestepped Sam's frenzied attack and strode down the hallway.

Dean leaped to his feet and yanked the door to Cas's room open, intending to warn him away. However, he was too late. There was a second angel in the room already, white hair standing on end as he reached out to Castiel, a determined expression on his face. Castiel stumbled back in a wild attempt to avoid his grasp, but the snow-haired archangel gripped his arm, and then snapped out of existence, taking Castiel with him.

"No!" Dean shouted, wheeling around to face the first angel behind him, but found that he had disappeared with his partner, after pulling the fallen angel after them.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After Castiel disappeared from the hospital room, Dean stared at the space he had been standing only a moment before.

"Damn it!" he growled, slamming his fist into the wall next to the doorway. This wasn't meant to happen. He was meant to look after Castiel, and now that the archangels had pushed him away, he wasn't able to do his job any longer.

Sam skidded around the corner of the doorway, ready to fight, but instead found Dean alone in the room, shaking his head.

"What happened?" he panted, looking into all the corners of the room as if he would find Castiel sitting on the floor like nothing had happened.

Dean pushed past him and strutted down the hallway in search of Meg. "The angels took Cas. He could be anywhere by now." Unbidden, Dean felt fear pushing through his mind, begging to be noticed. The angels could be doing anything they wanted to Cas. Dean was sure that Castiel was not very popular in heaven at the moment, and the thought of what the implacable angels could be doing to his friend almost stopped him in his tracks.

Sam hurried after Dean and they turned the corner, running into Meg coming from the opposite direction. Her eyes flicked black again and Sam wondered how often the patients at the hospital noticed.

"What the hell happened? Did you use the sigil?" She demanded of the brothers, looking irritated that she hadn't been around when the angels had appeared.

Sam explained what had happened, and she turned to Dean with an exasperated expression. "So you just let them walk off with your angel? What happened to keeping an eye on him? Wasn't that the entire point of this whole situation?"

Dean growled in frustration and pushed her over to the wall. "It wasn't my fault! Those damn angels are too fast! I'd like to see you go against an archangel at full power."

She smirked at him. "I'm sure I could have thought of something. You know, besides standing in the doorway, doing nothing to help Castiel."

By this point, Dean was livid, face turning red, and he looked as if were about to snap at any point. Sam decided to intervene before the two of them killed each other. Stepping between them, he spread his hands. "Hey, come on. How about we stop bitching about whose fault it is, and try and find where they took him?"

Dean stepped back reluctantly, and shrugged his shoulders. Meg stepped forward, brushing off her jacket. "Yeah, about that. No can do, boys."

Sam frowned, confused by her sudden change of attitude. "Why not?"

"Look, I signed up for the easy job of looking after a headcase. I never said I'd take on two full-blown archangels. That's not my style." Meg said, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm afraid you two are going to have to find Castiel yourself." Dean stepped forward, ready to argue, but before he could open his mouth, she disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Dean threw his hands up in exasperation, and started heading back to the Impala. "Damn demons." he muttered.

Sam frowned for a moment before following Dean to the car. "Wait a minute, Dean. Since when has Meg been able to teleport? She's never been able to do that before."

"Don't know, don't care. We need to figure out how to find the location of an archangel. There has to be a spell for it somewhere." Dean popped the trunk of the Impala, pulling up the old hatch in the back, revealing the arsenal of weapons. Since Dean had gone to find Sam at college years ago, the amount of weapons in the trunk had increased steadily until it was difficult to stash anything new inside. Now along with the silver, holy water, rock salt, and hex bags, they had stashes of holy oil, books filled with symbols, and the all-important demon knife.  
Dean pulled a book on angels and flipped it open, searching for a suitable spell. Ever since Bobby had died, they had nobody to consult on research matters. They had lost the Roadhouse, then Balthazar, and slowly but surely any contact they ever had to rely on. Dean sighed, settling on one of the spells. He had lost everyone except Sam, and he was damned if was going to allow his only friend to slip away from him again.

From their extensive contact with angels over the past few years, Sam and Dean had accumulated a great amount of materials related to angel spells, and the only ingredient they didn't have was earth from hallowed ground.

After driving to the closest church, Dean sprinkled the dirt into the bowl he had filled with ingredients, he lit the contents on fire and upended it onto the map spread out on the hood of the Impala. The yellowed paper flamed for a moment, and Dean was worried he had performed the spell wrong, but then the fire extinguished itself, and only a small scorch mark remained over a town in southern Michigan. Dean grabbed the map up in his hands, and slid into the drivers' seat, followed by Sam. He started the car and peeled away, determined to arrive in time to stop anything horrible from happening to Cas.

* * *

Castiel felt himself pulled away from the hospital, a tight grip on his arm. Being transported against his will was an unpleasant sensation, and he attempted to pull his arm out of the hand holding his arm, but by the time he pulled away, they were already at their destination.

Before he could get his bearings, he was pulled roughly to the side by the larger archangel and his hands were pulled behind him. He felt the cold sting of grace-infused metal encircling his wrists, and knew it was useless to try and pull them off. They were infused with angel magic, and were unbreakable. The large archangel stepped back, pushing Castiel to his knees in a circle of holy oil, and snapped his fingers, igniting the fire that would keep Castiel from flying away.

Castiel observed the second angel who had pulled him from the hospital room. His vessel was thin to the point of being emaciated, and his hair was so white it seemed unnatural. Like most angels, he possessed a severe expression, and looked unforgiving. Castiel attempted to see through the vessel to his grace, but found something blocking his vision. It could have been the archangel himself, but Castiel had a feeling his inability to see had more to do with his fractured mind.

In addition to hallucinating Lucifer, Castiel sometimes felt himself forgetting important aspects of his life. At times he forgot his brothers and sisters in the garrison, and for one terrifying moment one morning, he did not even remember the fact that he was an angel. At times, when Lucifer was quiet, Castiel found himself searching his memory for a memory from Heaven, and encountered only an empty space. It felt as if part of himself had dropped away from him, and the remaining pieces of himself were hanging over a precipice that he had to keep himself from falling into. For those few horrible minutes, he imagined himself falling into the darkness and not being able to stop himself.

Eventually, he tried to pull himself back from the edge by remembering his good memories. He thought about his brothers and sisters in the garrison, of Dean, Sam, and the first time he used his wings. Sometimes, these memories were enough to stop him from dropping off the edge, but the memories were getting fuzzier as time went on, and he worried about what would happen when they were all gone too.

For now, his mind was clear enough that he could concentrate on his surroundings. He was not sure why the archangels had taken him from the hospital, but he was sure it had something to do with the slaughter in Heaven. Remembering what he had done with the souls in Purgatory pained him, but these were additional memories he did not allow himself to forget, because to do so would be to marginalize his actions, and he did not want to trivialize what he had done to so many angels in Heaven.

After setting him in the circle, the two archangels ignored Castiel. They moved to the opposite side of the warehouse and set about drawing something on the wall. Castiel was too far away to see what it was, but he thought it was being drawn in blood. He tested out his wings, but as well as physically restraining him, the metal was dampening his grace as well, making it inaccessible. For the first time in a while, Castiel began to fear for himself.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: As before, I do not own the characters in this story, etc. Thank you for all the story alerts! I will try and keep posting every other day or so if I can. Please read and review.

* * *

Chapter 4

After the angels had finished drawing their symbols on the wall, they came back over near Castiel. He watched them warily, wondering what his chances were at fighting them off and escaping, but he knew that with his hands tied behind him and his grace inaccessible, his chances were next to nothing, especially next to the powerful archangels.

The archangels came to stand accusingly in front of him, and Castiel slowly raised his eyes to meet theirs. He knew that the time for judgement had come, and he only wished that he had a chance to say goodbye and apologize to Sam, and especially Dean. He knew that Dean still did not forgive him for what he had done, and his greatest regret besides killing his brothers and sisters was to not make things right with Dean.

**"**We are not going to kill you now, little brother." The white-haired angel said, his face impassive. "We still have some use for you yet."

**"**Although I would like to smite you on the spot for what you have done to Heaven." the larger angel snarled.

The white-haired angel held out a hand to stop him from speaking, and knelt down to bring himself level with Castiel. "I know your Grace is inaccessible, and you have the right to know who we are. I am Sealtiel, intercessor in God's absence. This is Jegudiel, glorifier of Heaven."

Castiel looked at Sealtiel straight on. "You are acting as intercessor for God? Where were you when Raphael was trying to take over Heaven?"

Sealtiel stood up and turned his back to Castiel. "Raphael had chosen to act on behalf of Heaven, and it was not your duty to intervene."

**"**Raphael was planning on course-correcting the Apocalypse." Castiel said pleadingly, trying to convince both the archangels and himself.

**"**And you should have let him do so!" Sealtiel thundered, turning back to Castiel and pushing his face to the edge of the holy fire, the leaping flames turning his face hard and terrifying. In this moment, Castiel understood that there was a thinly veiled anger hidden under the surface of Sealtiel. "It was not your duty to intervene. Raphael was an archangel, and what are you? Merely a common angel. Your duty is to uphold the will of God."

**"**God would not have wanted half of his creation to be destroyed in the battle." Castiel said with certainty.

Jegudiel's lip upturned at this suggestion. "God's creation? We angels are God's children. Those tiny humans are nothing more than a pastime. He did not intervene when the Apocalypse was due to occur, and I don't see him attempting to intervene now. We are acting in the best interests of Him."

Castiel said nothing, merely lowering his eyes in sadness. He used to have such faith in the righteousness of his brothers. Now, however, he was resigned to the fact that they would only act on their own behalf and not God's.

Sealtiel turned his back and reached over to the table full of materials and pulled out an angel blade from the mix. He then turned to Jegudiel and nodded at him. Jegudiel extinguished the flames with a flick of his wrist and pulled Castiel to his feet, grabbing his arms and dragging him over towards the far wall.**  
**When Castiel was close enough to see the symbols on the far wall, his eyes widened and he gasped. "No! No, you can't." He balked, and began to drag his feet on the ground, but Jegudiel was too strong and he felt himself pulled even closer to the wall.

They reached the far wall, and Jegudiel chained the shackles to a ring in the ground, bringing Castiel to his knees again. Castiel tugged desperately at the chain holding his hands and began to plead with the angels.

**"**No, please, you haven't thought this through. You can't do this!" Sealtiel and Jegudiel stood in front of Castiel with unforgiving looks on their faces, and now Jegudiel had an angel blade in his hand as well.

Castiel tried to move out of the way, but he couldn't. "You weren't there the last time this happened. You don't know how bad it will get!" Castiel cried, eyeing the crimson marks on the wall that he had drawn himself a few months ago. He wouldn't allow this to happen again, but there was no way he could stop the archangels once they had made up their minds.

**"**Brothers, please." Castiel beseeched them, his eyes desperate.

Jegudiel shook his head. "You do not deserve to call yourself our brother." With those words, both archangels leaned down and drove the angel blades into Castiel in unison.

* * *

Dean pulled over in frustration, spreading the map on the steering wheel again. "The damn map said there was a turnoff for Coldwater 15 minutes ago, but I haven't seen a sign in a while."

Sam leaned over, double-checking the route they had taken. "Maybe we took a wrong turn back at the interstate."

Dean merely grunted in response and pulled around, driving back the way they had come. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally pulled into Coldwater, Michigan. It was a small town, and so there was hardly anybody out on the streets, and they merely drove down a few streets before realizing that they weren't going to find the angels by driving around.

The next street they turned onto had a café in the corner, and Sam pointed out that the lights were on. "Maybe somebody in there will be able to tell us something."

**"**Oh, yeah, sure. Hey, you guys seen any angels around lately? Have there been an unusual number of smitings in the area in the past couple days? That's going to be helpful." Dean muttered sarcastically, but pulled quickly into the diner's parking lot.

When they walked into the diner, they only found an old couple sipping coffee in the corner booth and the bored waitress with her feet up on the counter, reading a book.

Sam walked up to the counter to talk to the waitress automatically, as they knew he was a better people person than Dean, who tended to start making sarcastic comments about bystanders when he was in a bad mood.

**"**Hi." Sam said, smiling at the waitress. Her name tag said her name was Dina. She looked up from her book reluctantly, and raised her eyebrows in a question. "My brother and I are reporters from Flint, and we're here to investigate a story on strange occurrences in the area."

The waitress frowned, glancing at the clock on the wall which showed it was past 11 o' clock. "You guys are working now? It's really late."

Dean rolled his eyes, stepping up to the counter. "We really like to work late. There's no use in wasting time. So, have you seen anything weird lately?"

Dina made a face. "Like what? You two are pretty weird so far."

Sam interrupted before Dean could make another sarcastic comment. "Anything strange in the area, like unexplained power outages, or maybe odd deaths.."

**"**Deaths?" Dina frowned, looking at the two of them more carefully. "What kind of story are you two investigating, anyway? Nothing weird ever happens here."

They were about to give up and walk out of the diner when the woman sitting at the back booth raised her head to take a second look at the Winchesters. "Do strange thumping noises count?"

Sam and Dean shared a glance and walked over to the booth. "What kind of thumping noises do you mean? And where are they coming from?" Sam asked her.

**"**Oh, down at the old mill on the back road there have been some loud crashes that I've heard the last few nights. It makes it very hard to sleep. I could also swear I saw some lights flickering down there the other night." the woman said, shrugging her shoulders, as if expecting the brothers would dismiss her observations.

Dean leaned forward, an intent look on his face. "Where is this old mill?"

After obtaining hurried directions from the woman, Sam and Dean hurried out of the diner and jumped into the Impala, the three occupants of the diner staring after them.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Castiel lay on his side on the ground, his hands awkwardly behind him. Dimly, he heard the sounds of the archangels making preparations around him and drawing things on the ground around him. He opened his eyes with effort and found without surprise that Lucifer was back.

****Lucifer sat cross-legged on the ground like a schoolchild looking straight at Cas. When he saw Castiel's eyes open, he leaned forward hungrily, ready to take his attention. "So finally the broken angel is awake. I thought for sure you were dead." He licked his teeth, looking pleased with the thought.

****Castiel felt his warm blood spreading out underneath him. In the back of his mind, the part that wasn't blinded by the pain in his chest, there was the thought that he had lost an enormous amount of blood. If he had been fully human, he most certainly would have died by now.

****Cas opened his mouth to respond to Lucifer, but only more blood bubbled out. He coughed some, turning his head to the side so that he wouldn't have to look at Lucifer any longer.

****Lucifer grinned, dipping a finger into the large pool that surrounded him. "I wonder what will happen when you bleed out enough. I suppose the door to purgatory will open again. I wonder what will come through this time? I'm sure there are much worse and older things in purgatory than the Leviathans. And the best part is that yet again, you are responsible for the door opening." He licked his finger, satisfied.

****After that, Castiel dipped out of consciousness again for a few minutes. When he came to, the archangels were out of sight, but Lucifer wasn't. Cas wondered how long he had been laying there, and estimated that it must have been at least an hour or two. Sealtiel and Jegudiel needed a certain amount of blood to complete whatever ritual they were attempted, and it must have been taking them longer than they had thought.

****Castiel attempted to shift his weight off of his torn chest, but this sent a bolt of pain through him, and he cried out. He abandoned his attempt to move, and opened his eyes to meet Lucifer's.

****With a shudder of fear, Castiel saw that Lucifer had changed. He now sat off-kilter, his head kinked to the right, his neck looking broken and unnatural. His skin was beginning to rot through, and his suddenly emaciated face looked skeletal and dead. He opened his eyes quickly, and Castiel jerked back involuntarily, sending another lance of pain through his body. Lucifer's eyes were a deep ebony, and they looked so dark that you could nearly get pulled down into them. He jerked his head, and it appeared as if there were horns on his head, and he was moving towards Castiel, twitching and moaning, reaching out to grab him.

****Castiel screamed, his torn throat protesting, and he kicked out weakly at Lucifer, attempting to stop him in his tracks somehow. Lucifer grabbed his leg, sinking his rotten fingers into the flesh, and Castiel jerked back only to discover that the pressure had disappeared. Lucifer had disappeared, as if he was never there in the first place.

****In his place stood Jegudiel, arms folded as he looked down at Castiel in disgust. "I knew there was something wrong with your head, but I did not know that you were hallucinating. It is said that you did this to yourself. Why would you break yourself?"

****Castiel managed to croak out an answer. "I was rectifying my mistakes."

******"**You were attempting to save a human. In the process, you corrupted yourself. I do not even recognize you as an angel anymore. You have come to the same level as the humans."

******"**You don't understand." Castiel said with difficulty, interrupted by a fit of coughing that left more blood in his mouth. "They are my friends."

******"**No, you are correct. I do not understand." Jegudiel said, leaning down towards Cas. When he looked up again, the voice had changed, and Dean was kneeling in front of him. His hazel eyes looked pityingly at him, as if he were slightly disappointed.

****Castiel widened his eyes, and wanted to warn Dean away. He opened his mouth to tell him to run before the archangels killed him, but Dean simply tilted his head and smiled thinly. He was kneeling in the pool of blood, his hands resting on the blood.

******"**What exactly did you think you would be accomplishing by doing this? Did you think I would stay around after you fixed Sam's head? Did you think I would ever forgive you for what you did to us?"

****Castiel's blue eyes creased with pain. "But I fixed it." he seemed to plead.

****Dean shook his head. "You didn't fix anything. You are pathetic, Cas. You acted as a child would, and you're going to die here. Alone. I'm not coming to save you, and not even your angel friends want you anymore." Dean reached out with a bloody hand and grabbed Castiel's shoulder, as if to make his comments more sincere. Castiel closed his eyes, wishing him away, and when he opened his eyes, Dean was gone, but there was a scarlet handprint on his sleeve, as if he had really been there.

****Castiel closed his eyes again, and this period of darkness was longer than the others. By the time he came to, he couldn't breathe. In panic, his eyes flew open and he forced air into his lungs, which set off a severe coughing fit. He wasn't thinking clearly, but his pain in his chest had faded to a dull throb, which meant he soon would fade away. He saw the symbols on the wall begin to glow faintly, gaining light slowly, and knew the door would soon open, and with its opening, he would leave through another door that led to God knows where. Castiel closed his eyes.

* * *

Dean pulled up to the old mill, dirt flying off the wheels in his haste. He stopped the car, barely stopping to pull the keys out of the ignition. Normally, he never would have treated the Impala so cavalierly, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

****Dean grabbed one of his sawed-off shotguns from the trunk and headed toward the door of the mill. He knew that bullets did absolutely no damage to angels, and wouldn't even slow them down, but he'd be damned if was going into a battle without a weapon.

****Sam caught up quickly to Dean, and tried to slow him down. "Dean! Dean, what are we even doing? Do we have a plan?"

******"**Yes, we have a plan. We get in, we kick some angel ass, and we leave with Cas in the Impala. Then, we go to a bar and get wasted. God knows I deserve it after all this bullshit." Dean grunted, shrugging his shoulders and putting his hand on the handle of the door. For a moment, he considered the possibility that the only thing he would find behind this door was the ashes of Castiel's wings burnt into the ground and a dead body. Then he shrugged the thought off and pulled the door open quickly. He wouldn't allow himself to lose another friend.

****The door squeaked open with a yank. It was nearly rusted shut, and clearly hadn't been opened in years. Since the angels didn't need to use doors, the rusty doors were a perfect alarm system, and Dean winced, positive that the sound would echo through the whole building.

****When nothing attacked them for a few seconds, he aimed the sawed-off in front of him, and walked cautiously into the dark hallway, looking into every corner before continuing. The place was full of old metal pipes and damp mold. Dean nearly shot a rat when it came around the corner, sniffing at the ground looking for food scraps.

****Reaching the end of the corridor, the brothers came across a wide-open space that clearly used to be the work floor, but now was merely an empty area filled with large hulking shapes covered in dusty sheets. To the left stood a table, and the two angels from the hospital were standing around it, drawing symbols deep into the wood as part of some kind of ritual. Sam started to inch that way slowly, keeping to the shadows, and Dean started to follow him, but then glanced to the right.

****On the far wall, there was a sigil gaining power that looked disturbingly familiar. It was increasing in light very quickly, but that wasn't what caught Dean's attention.

******"**Oh, God." he whispered quietly, noticing the crumpled body lying on the ground. With feet that felt like lead, he inched forward in that direction until he was close enough to see the pool of blood that surrounded him.

****Dean's stomach dropped, and he clapped his hand over his mouth, finally daring to think the worst. Abandoning all pretense of subtlety, he rushed forward quickly, reaching the far wall. In his hospital clothes, and with his hands chained behind him, Castiel looked a far cry from the powerful being Dean had met long ago in another empty building.

****Castiel's eyes were closed, and he looked incredibly pale, as if all the life had been drained from him, left to spread on the cement floor. Dean sank to his knees, not caring that the blood was all over his knees. Castiel's hair was plastered to his head from the blood on one side, and Dean lifted it carefully, trying not to aggravate his injury. His white hospital shirt was completely soaked through with his crimson, and Dean could see the two stab wounds through his shirt.

******"**Cas? Cas, can you hear me?" Dean said desperately, leaning in to see whether he was breathing or not. His skin was cold and there was no breath coming from him. Dean was reminded of his comment he had made to Sam a long time ago. "Maybe angels don't need to breathe." Dean said to himself under his breath. "Cas, you need to wake up. Come on, you selfish bastard. Open your eyes. Do you know how many times you've died already? This is just getting ridiculous. I know you're faking it this time." Dean laughed weakly, shaking Cas' shoulders slightly. Castiel's head lolled back, and Dean started to get angry.**  
****"**Castiel! You listen to me right now. I did not just drive halfway across the country just for you to die on me right when I walk in the door. Wake up!" Dean nearly shouted, refusing to believe that he was dead, as if he could bring him back by sheer power of will.

****Castiel's eyes fluttered and they opened halfway, a groan escaping his lips. Dean let out a breath, almost crying in relief.

******"**Hey, Cas. Listen to me, I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? But you need to stay awake for me, got it? Don't you dare close your eyes on me." Castiel fixed his blue eyes on Dean, but they were glazed and out of focus.

****Castiel tried to speak, but the only thing that emerged was a croak. Dean shook his head. "Hey, shut up, all right? I don't want to hear it. Just keep your eyes open."

****During this entire time, Dean had been ignoring the burning sigil on the wall that had steadily been increasing in power, but with a flutter of wings, the two archangels appeared behind the two of them, looking at the burning sigil with an expression of dark satisfaction.

****Dean looked up at them angrily. "What did you do to Castiel? What the hell is that?"

****Sealtiel barely spared Dean a glance. "We have done what we must. And you are too late to save Castiel. He served Heaven in his death, and perhaps he will receive forgiveness."

******"**He's not dead yet, you sons of bitches. And what have you opened there? What's that symbol on the wall?"

****This time, Sealtiel did acknowledge him, turning his impassive gaze on Dean. "We have opened the gate to purgatory in order to rid the world of the Leviathans."

****Dean could only gape at them wordlessly, as once again he watched the large gate into purgatory open, knowing that whatever the archangels thought, they could not control what came through the opening.


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry about the couple days it took me to update. I had quite a few things to work on, but I should be updating again by the end of the weekend. Thank you for all the story alerts and reviews! As always, please read and review.

* * *

Chapter 6

The seals were glowing like stars, the light illuminating the archangels' faces. However, instead of making them look more holy, they seemed to have deep crevasses in their bodies, left by the light on their faces. They looked pleased with how the ritual was progressing, dark looks of satisfaction in their eyes.

Dean pulled his attention away from the angels and the sigil and back to Castiel. His eyes were fixed on the glowing wall, and although he was very close to unconsciousness, his face was set in an immeasurable expression of sadness and guilt. Dean shook his shoulders again, returning the cerulean orbs to his face. The worst part of his gaze was that he looked defeated, as if he deserved the fate he had been given.

**"**We're going to get out of here before that wall busts open, okay? I don't think we want to be anywhere in the vicinity." Dean said, setting Castiel's head back on the ground and going around to his back. "We just need to get these things off of you first." Castiel didn't say anything, and merely let Dean pick up his hands without resistance. His hands were ice-cold, and the fingers were turning slightly blue at the tips, which couldn't be a good sign.

Dean slipped his fingers underneath the manacles, searching for a weak point. Castiel hissed and his fingers twitched. The skin underneath the manacles was red and slightly singed, as if the manacles had been burning the skin, and Dean felt angry at the angels who had done this to him. Shaking the chain back and forth, Dean could find no reasonable place to break it, and he followed the edge to the ground, where it was fastened to a ring in the ground. Pulling on it with all his strength, the ring didn't even budge, and Dean figured he had to find a key to open them.

His attention was drawn again to the angels standing next to the wall. The light, instead of continuing to gain power, had simply stopped and held steady, and the steady rumbling that was pushing through the edge of consciousness had stopped. Sealtiel frowned, holding out a hand as if to check what had gone wrong. Nothing happened, and he turned back to the pair on the ground.

As if talking to himself, the angel muttered. "Must not be enough blood." He started toward Castiel, as if to pull more blood from the angel, and Dean stood up quickly and stood in front of Castiel, keeping him away from Sealtiel.

"You're not doing anything else to him. Back off." Dean growled, mustering enough anger to give the archangel pause.

"Interesting, that you choose to protect the life of the one who has betrayed you." Sealtiel said, tilting his head in curiosity.

Dean said nothing to this, only pulled out his shotgun and levelled it at the angel's heart. Sealtiel shook his head, amused. He flicked his hand dismissively, and Dean went flying through the air. He flew to the edge of the room, hitting the table full of weapons.

Sam turned around from his frantic search through the piles of papers and herbs for something useful. He reached a hand down and pulled Dean to his feet, and Dean started heading back for the angels, but Sam stopped him.

"Wait a second. You need a key or something." Sam said, dropping to his knees and sifting through all the trash on the ground.

Dean stood there impatiently, bouncing on the balls of his feet, wanting to help Castiel. Sealtiel had leaned down and placed his hand on Castiel's forehead, and closed his eyes as though he were rooting deep inside him, looking for something hidden away.

Castiel cried out and his eyes began to glow, so Dean took off running toward the angels. Without bothering to think about the consequences of what he was about to do, he took aim at the angel and pulled the trigger, hitting Sealtiel in the heart. The angel didn't do as much as flinch, but kept his eyes closed as Castiel was burning.

Dean changed tactics, running full-tilt at the angel, intending to tackle him if nothing else worked. Usually, an angel could never be moved by an ordinary human, but Sealtiel was distracted with Castiel, and Dean had anger on his side. With all the force he could muster, Dean crashed into the angel. While Dean went flying off to the side again, cracking his head on the wall, the force was enough to make Sealtiel falter, stumbling back from Castiel. Castiel collapsed back on the ground, his eyes shut tightly, but Dean was relieved to see that they had stopped glowing.

Sealtiel turned toward Dean with an annoyed expression on his face. Dean tried to get to his feet, shaking his head at the stars obscuring his vision. "I was ready to tolerate your annoyance because you posed no threat, but now you are slowing down the ritual, and I will not tolerate that." Sealtiel walked forward, his hand extended toward Dean. Dean stumbled backward, still having difficulty walking straight.

Before Sealtiel could lay his hand on Dean, Jegudiel called for Sealtiel's attention. During all this time, he had been standing near the wall, attempting to add further sigils to stabilize the ritual. The wall began to grow brighter once again, and Sealtiel abandoned Dean without a second thought. He joined Jegudiel by the wall as it began to break apart under the force of the sigils carved into its wall.

"Dean!" Sam called from the other room. He triumphantly held up a pair of keys that he had unearthed in the scattered possessions on the table. Dean held up his hand, and Sam tossed them, Dean catching them in his hand.

He ran back to Castiel, dropping down to the pool of blood once again. Sam joined him, standing between the two of them and the angels, who weren't paying the three of them any attention now that the ritual was working. There was a low rumbling noise and a high whine almost too quiet to hear coming from all around the room.

Sam looked worriedly around them. "Dean, we need to get out of here. I have a bad feeling about this."

Dean grunted and shook Castiel's shoulders again. This time, he did not respond, and Dean was worried he did not have much time left if they didn't do something to help. Dean lifted his arms, and fit the brass key into the lock, unlocking the cuffs. They fell off and landed on the ground, and Dean pulled his hands carefully around to the front again, wincing when this motion caused more blood to leak out. Pulling his penknife out of his pocket, he ripped a length of fabric off of his overshirt, knotting it around Cas' wound, although he knew it wouldn't do any good to stop the bleeding.

Motioning toward Sam to help him, Dean put his arms around Castiel's shoulders and lifted him upward. Unintentionally, this movement jerked Cas up too quickly, and his eyes flew open, a torn cry coming from his lips.

"I'm sorry, Cas, but we need to get you out of here right away. Just hold on for a minute." Dean said, wincing. Sam reached down to grab Castiel's feet, but an incredibly loud crash echoed through the building as something hit the roof outside with incredible force.

The Winchesters stumbled a little bit, and stared as the ceiling started splintering apart under the weight of whatever was on top of the building. Sealtiel and Jegudiel turned around from the wall, staring intently upwards. When nothing moved again for a few seconds, the two archangels lifted their hands in unison and pulled a brass support from the ceiling. This caused plaster to rain down in excess as whatever was up there was pulled down to the main floor.

Sam and Dean jumped in opposite directions to get out of the way, Dean pulling Castiel with him as the something crashed to the floor in a shower of dust and smoke.

Dean cursed as he saw that him and Castiel were cut off from the exit now. Looking down at the floor, Dean's breath caught in his throat as he noticed what had crashed through the ceiling.

Dick Roman lay sprawled on the ground in a very undignified manner. He turned his head, and Dean could see there was something very wrong with him. His eyes, nose, ears and mouth were overflowing with the black liquid that was the signal of the Leviathans. It was practically pouring out of him as if trying to escape. His back was distended as something tried to push its way out of him. All over his body, bits of his skin were being pushed outward as if there were hundreds of things inside him trying to break through.

Dick growled, a deep sound coming from his throat, and he shook his head with force, pulling himself to his feet. The black ooze was bursting from all areas of him now, sliding down his skin. With a look akin to murder, he stepped toward the angels, his large teeth sliding out in his anger.

Jegudiel was the first to jump in toward Dick, punching his fists into Dick's rubbery skin. Dick yowled in an animal manner. It was now clear that he was mostly Leviathan instead of thinly veiled human, and that something was pulling him apart.

As the archangel and the creature fought furiously, Dean noticed something that Dick didn't because of the advantage of his distance from the fight. Jegudiel wasn't trying to beat down Dick, but simply kept throwing punches and pulling backwards. He was drawing Dick closer and closer to the gaping hole in the wall, which had started to suck small bits of debris inside it. The wind was blowing everywhere, throwing dust into the air which made it hard to see.

Dean threw Castiel's arm around his shoulders, and started dragging him toward the exit while the angels and the Leviathan were distracted, stumbling under his weight.

"Sam, go start the car! Quickly!" Dean shouted, knowing they would need to drive away right away once he and Cas got outside. Sam ran toward the door, pulling the car keys out of his pocket as he went.

The gaping hole in the wall had started to howl as if sensing the proximity of something that belonged inside. The wind increased, and even Sealtiel had difficulty staying upright. Jegudiel and Dick went flying dangerously close to the opening of the hole. With an almighty gust of wind, the heavy table in the other room shifted a few inches closer to the far wall, while the numerous weapons went flying off the floor and toward the wall. Dean ducked his head as they went soaring toward the portal. Castiel was barely conscious, and that last gust of wind had knocked Dean off his feet, pulling both of them toward the portal, wind gusting around them in a furious cyclone.

The jolt of hitting the floor with such strength was enough to wake Castiel up temporarily. He opened his eyes all the way and saw the open portal and the Leviathan fighting the angels. Sealtiel had joined the fray as well, and while he didn't fight as furiously as Jegudiel, his blows were more strategically placed, and all three of them moved right to the edge of the hole, seeming oblivious to the danger so close.

Right before the next gust of wind arrived, Sealtiel stepped back again, allowing Jegudiel to grapple with the Leviathan himself. Looking down on the two of them with a superior expression, he disappeared in a flap of wings, his duty finished. The second he flashed out of existence, the next gust came. It was the most powerful one yet, and Jegudiel and Dick tumbled out of sight through the hole, the last sight of them still fighting against each other, their faces twisted into a grimace of hate.

Dean and Castiel were yanked forward by the wind, both of them sliding across the ground uncontrollably. Dean scraped his boots on the ground trying to slow himself down, but it was like sliding down an ice-covered hill on a sled. There was no stopping them, and both Castiel and Dean realized simultaneously that they were going to fall through the portal as well.

Castiel turned to face Dean's frightened hazel eyes, and couldn't help but feel heavy-hearted that Dean was going to die with him, in this empty place.

Dean's feet went over the edge first, and he was pulled into the deep darkness beyond the roaring breach in space. Castiel was yanked through second, and the two of them fell into the dark together, still gripping desperately to each other's hands.


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: I'm really sorry about not updating forever! I was incredibly busy with a whole ton of things that I had no time to write at all. But after this point, I will definitely be posting at more regular times. It definitely won't take this long the next time. I should have the next chapter up in a few days. Again, very sorry about the delay! Please read and review.

Chapter 7

Sam stood outside the warehouse, half out of the Impala, waiting impatiently for his brother to emerge with Castiel on his shoulder. After one minute had passed by, and there was still no response from inside the building, Sam started forward uncertainly, wondering if he should run back into the building.

Suddenly, the howl emanating from the building stopped, the wind cut short. Panicked, Sam ran forward, yanking the door open and running frantically into the empty warehouse. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Sam noticed that all five people who were inside the warehouse when he'd left only a minute ago were gone.

**"**Dean!" Sam shouted, looking in every corner of the room. There was no sign of him, and the only thing left was the pool of blood on the floor, slowly congealing after time. "Castiel! Dean?" Sam leaned against the wall, running his hand through his hair. The portal in the wall was closed now, the wall as smooth as if there had never been a gaping hole before.

Sam ran outside toward the car, knowing that he had to find some way to locate Dean and Castiel.

* * *

Dean woke up with a shout, swinging his fists as if to ward off an invisible attacker. He sprang to his feet, and looked around him in confusion. He was standing on a floor of black rock, the surface covered in a fine dusting of ash. Looking in front of him, there was nothing to see for yards. It was as dark as a cave, and for a moment Dean wondered where the little light he was seeing was coming from.

Glancing down, he noticed that the light was coming from the black rock underneath. It was as if there were only a thin layer of rock over a bed of lava that was threatening to burst through. Dean shivered, reminded uncomfortably of another place he had been in that was filled with fire and brimstone.

For a moment, he stood frozen, petrified that he had ended up back in Hell. His fists clenched, and his nails dug into the palms of his hands. Glancing wildly around, he saw that Cas was nowhere near him, and that he was all alone. His mind was flooded with memories from Hell. He remembered Alastair, and the rack, and the horrible things he had done to the other souls in Hell. He was afraid that he had been dragged back down.

Just as he was really starting to hyperventilate, there was a great roar from underneath, and the ground underneath him shuddered. Shaking himself out of his panic, Dean ran forward away from the spot he had been standing in as a big chunk of the black rock dropped out from underneath him and landed in the red-hot lava.

Looking with horror at the chunk of rock that had almost dragged him into the lava, he resolved himself to find some sort of safe place where it wasn't likely to drop under.

Walking carefully over the crumbling ground was heart-stopping. Every tiny crack and shudder made him tense up, preparing to fall into the lava. Dean caught sight of a shape on the ground a small distance off, unmoving. Certain that the shape was Castiel, Dean stepped forward toward him, but the second he set his foot forward, there was another loud crack and the piece of rock began to teeter dangerously.

Jerking his foot back, Dean looked helplessly as the piece of rock fell a short distance into the lava. It landed in the lava face-up, floating in the river of red. However, the edge were beginning to sink in and go underneath the flow.

Castiel was in the middle of the chunk of rock, his eyes closed, hair dark from the rock's dust he was laying on. He seemed oblivious to the extreme danger he was in, and Dean moved around the edge of the hole to see if he could somehow reach Cas and pull him up.

"Cas!" Dean shouted, his hand outstretched desperately. "Castiel, wake up! You're going to sink, Cas! Damn it, grab my hand!" As far as he stretched his arm, he was still way too far away to reach Castiel, and Dean knew that he would sink into the lava.

"Castiel!" Dean screamed harshly, in a final attempt to wake him up. At the sound of Dean's voice, the angel's eyes flew open suddenly, and he looked around to see the lava quickly making its way closer and closer to the center of the rock, where he was laying.

"Cas, grab my hand! If you time it right, I can maybe pull you up." Dean said, knowing that the rock underneath him might crumble if Castiel jumped, but also knowing that there was no other option.

Castiel looked up at Dean seriously, judging the distance between them. Castiel could see that there was too much of a gap, and leaping would cause both of them to fall into the lava.

With a shake of his head and roll of his shoulders, Castiel stretched out his arms, and wings burst from his shoulder blades, reaching out into the smoky air. With a mighty push, Castiel rose into the air just as the rock underneath his feet disappeared, and he rose into the air above Dean.

Mouth wide open, Dean watched Castiel float gently down to land next to him on the rocky outcropping. His wings stretched out from his body, flapping gently and stretching out, as if unused to being tucked away for so long. The wings were chestnut and deep, the feathers large and thick. Dean had never seen Castiel's wings before this time, only catching glimpses of their shadows on a few occassions.

Castiel's feet touched down on the rock, and his wings folded behind him, stretched behind him instead of to the sides. Castiel looked at Dean with a steely gaze, and Dean was reminded of the first time he had met Castiel, the sparks bursting around him as he entered the building. His shirt was free from blood, and his face clear. He was dressed in the same suit and trenchcoat that he had always worn, and he looked awake and steady for the first time in ages.

Dean looked at him, shaken out of his earlier panic and worry. Before he could say anything, there was a deep rumble underneath them, and Castiel held out his hand. "Take my hand. We have to get out of here before this whole rock collapses." His voice was as deep and gravelly as it had been when they first met, all the confidence and assurance that he had when he flew down from heaven all those years ago.

Wordlessly, Dean reached out his hand and grabbed hold of Castiel's. Cas pulled him close, grabbing the back of his jacket, and spread his wings again. With a warm wind flooding past his face, Dean rose into the air with Castiel, gripping tight to his lapels.

They had flown off just in time, because the ground where they had been standing began to crumble, and it started to drop off into the lava below. Dean shut his eyes tightly. He had always hated flying, and the very few times he was forced into an airplane only reinforced his conviction that airplanes were created to crash and panic the passengers.

After a few minutes of flying, Dean's stomach settled, and he cracked his eyes open to look at where they were going. Cas' face was turned forward, his expression determined and steely. Carrying a passenger didn't seem to faze him much, and apart from the occassional dip in air pockets, it was as if he was flying by himself.

Dean glanced down below and wished he hadn't. The ground flew past, some pieces dropping into the heat and others crumbling slowly. Dean swallowed heavily and looked back at Castiel. It was strange, but after the first few heart-stopping minutes, he didn't mind the flying as much as he thought he would. He drew a certain comfort from Castiel, who seemed so calm and certain that Dean was sure nothing could go wrong.

The two of them flew over the cracking landscape towards the edge of the cavern, hoping to find some kind of place to land, their feet dangling in the air above the desolate place they were leaving behind.


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and story alerts! Again, I don't own any of the characters in this story, etc. I should have the next chapter up in a few days. Please read and review!

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Chapter 8

They finally left the dark, rocky landscape behind after what felt like hours, but might only have been a few minutes. The rock underneath them slowly changed into something harder and more solid, and the oppressive heat dissipated slowly to leave behind a sneaking nothing, which was even worse.

Eventually, they flew out of the dark cavern into the open air. Although, open air didn't seem to be the correct word for where they were. There was no longer a ceiling over their heads, but when Dean looked up, he didn't see anything there. There was no sky, moon or stars, just a gaping nothing. It wasn't merely a dark space, it seemed to be the very absence of anything, and this was extremely unnerving, so Dean kept his eyes glued to the ground.

In contrast to the cavern, the ground was now a huge expanse of sand that stretched out as far as the eye could see. For some reason, there was light enough to see by in this desert, although it wasn't clear where the light came from.

Once they got a decent distance away from the cavern, Castiel looked downwards, trying to find someplace to land that was safe. The huge expanse of sand seemed uninterrupted and endless, and so he decided to drop. His wings fluttered with effort as he tried to bring them down to the ground without slamming into the ground. Misjudging their weight, Castiel plummeted suddenly, and Dean gasped, clutching the trenchcoat for dear life. However, Cas got control of the weight, and finally set them both down on the ground safely.

Dean let go of the coat and stepped back from Castiel with shaky legs. Flying had never been a pleasant experience, and the added stress of having no safe cabin around him was very nerve-wracking. Hands on his knees, he tried to get his nerves under control.

Cas folded his wings inwards towards his back, and once they were closed, he stumbled backward, almost falling to the ground. Dean grabbed his arm quickly to stop him from falling.

"Woah, Cas. Maybe you should sit down or something."

Cas nodded distractedly and dropped down to the ground, Dean joining him, legs stretched out in front of him.

"It seems I misjudged how far I could fly with that extra weight." Castiel said, brow creased.

"Are you saying I'm fat?" Dean joked, smiling a little bit.

Castiel looked confused at the suggestion. "No, I was saying that carrying another human is more work than I had anticipated."

Dean shook his head. "You know, Cas, one of these days, I'm going to teach you about the wonders of sarcasm and jokes. It might kill me, but I have to try."

After this comment, the two of them fell silent, many unsaid things hanging in the air between them. Castiel started fingering his chest around his heart, as if remembering something. Dean glanced over at him.

"So, are you healed? You don't still have that stab wound, do you?"

Castiel looked off into the distance, as if trying to understand the complexities of the situation. "No, I would seem to be completely cured. The skin is unbroken, and so I believe that I don't need to worry about bleeding to death."

Dean nodded, sighing in relief. "Well, I'm really glad you're fine now. You scared me to death in that warehouse back there. I thought you were- Well, I thought you were dead." Dean looked away, clearing his throat in embarrassment all of a sudden, unused to speaking his thoughts out loud.

Castiel turned to look at Dean, giving him the deep stare that so often unnerved him. "That was certainly not my intention. I am sorry, Dean."

Dean snorted. "You don't need to apologize for being stabbed in the heart, Cas. That certainly wasn't your fault."

"Yes, but what I did before all of this, when I released-" Dean held up his hand.

"Cas, come on. We don't need to talk about that stuff right now. How about we just try and figure a way out of this hellhole?"

Castiel looked like he was about to pursue the conversation, but Dean's conflicted expression told him otherwise.

"So, how come you have that trenchcoat again?" Dean asked suddenly. "You weren't wearing it before, so how did you find it again?"

Castiel shook his head. "I didn't find it. I was wearing the coat when I woke up here. I think it has something to do with the projected images of ourselves. I am so used to wearing this coat and suit that it simply came into being when I landed here."

Dean nodded. "So, here we are shown to be what? Our projected selves? Does that mean that your head is fixed now?"

A brief look of fear passed over Castiel's face before he could stop it. "Yes, the hallucinations do seem to have passed for now. Perhaps they were healed as well as my vessel's body."

"Right." Dean was about to ask what exactly those hallucinations consisted of when there was a low howling sound from a ways away in the sand. Dean's head whipped around to face the noise, and the two of them rose hastily to their feet.

"What was that?" Dean asked nervously.

Castiel didn't answer, only gazed sharply in all directions of the sand, hoping to gain clues. There was a sudden movement far off in the sand, and as it came closer, he could see a rippling spine rise briefly from underneath the sand and fall back underneath like a wave.

Waiting longer, the spine reappeared, and instead of moving away from the pair, it seemed to be heading straight for them, as if it could sense them. The back that raised out of the sand was dark and shimmering, covered in iridescent scales that seemed to reflect some kind of inner light.

"Uh, what the hell is that?" Dean asked nervously.

Castiel shook his head. "I have no idea. We need to get away from this thing."

Dean nodded. "Great plan. Are we going to fly, then? It's getting closer."  
"I don't have enough strength to fly again. It took all I have to take us this far. We are going to have to go by foot."

Dean widened his eyes. "You mean we're going to have to run, and just hope that that thing doesn't catch up to us?"

Castiel nodded. "Yes. We should start now."

Dean nodded, and the pair of them turned quickly and started to run faster and faster away from the creature in the sand that was nearing inexorably toward them, no matter how far they went.


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: As always, I don't own the characters in this story, etc. Please read and review! Next chapter will be up within the week.

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Chapter 9

Feet thundering over the sand, the pair fled over the sand, the endless expanse of desert stretching out before them. Glancing behind them, Castiel could see that the creature was still very far away, but it was moving faster than them, and soon enough it would catch up. Eyes searching desperately in front of them, Castiel could see nothing that broke the empty landscape, nothing that could save them.

Looking sideways, Castiel was worried to see that Dean was slowing down, his breath coming in shallow gasps. Dean was in good shape, but there was only so much running he could do before collapsing. Castiel knew that he would be able to far outrun Dean, but wasn't about to leave him behind.

Glancing behind him, Dean saw the giant ebony spine rearing up only a few yards back. With another bout of adrenaline that he didn't even realize was in him, he sped up again, pulling level with Castiel, the both of them pumping their arms as fast as they could.

The spine came closer and sped up, until all of a sudden it dropped beneath the surface of the sand, disappearing from view. Dean and Cas skidded to a halt, Dean inhaling huge gulps of air like he was drowning. Turning in every direction, they couldn't see any sign of the creature, but they were sure it wasn't gone.

Dean reached forward and yanked Cas forward just in time for a spine to surge upwards from the sand. Dean and Cas backed away quickly as the creature itself pulled itself out of the sand. There was an ebony expanse that came out of the sand. Six enormous legs came out of the sand, pulling an even larger body out after them. The legs emerged from slits inside the creature's body, as if they could be retracted any time. Apart from the legs, there seemed to be no discernible feature on the entire body. The creature was long and thin, tapering off to a whip-fast tail at the end. It had no face or eyes, and this fact made it even more terrifying.

Dean's jaw dropped and even Castiel was taken aback. Neither of them had ever come across anything like this before, and neither had any idea how to deal with something like this. The two of them shared a look before taking off in the other direction, running faster than they had been before.

The creature's legs retracted into the body again, dropping it down to the surface of the sand. It surged forward like a snake, gliding across the surface of the sand as if it were water. The creature right at his heels, Dean leaped to the side, rolling away from the monster. It turned its body toward Castiel instead, its tail coming around the side to snap at Castiel's legs. Desperately, Castiel leaped into the air, his wings snapping open and pushing him upwards once. However, he couldn't keep them open, and so dropped back to the ground, but the creature's momentum had already taken it past him towards Dean again. Dean scrambled backwards on his hands, trying desperately to avoid the thing's tail.

However, the tail was faster than Dean, and it wrapped itself around his legs, yanking up so Dean was hanging upside down in the air. The tail began bringing him down toward the body of the creature, which had begun to bubble like tar, like something could be dropped inside the body and dissolved.

Dean screamed and thrashed out, but he only succeeded in spinning in circles and getting dizzy. His legs were still stuck together, but he brought himself up to claw at the tail with his fingers. However, his fingers sunk into the tail without causing any damage.**  
**Castiel ran toward the creature, leaping on top of the body with help from his wings. He brought his hands down, shutting his eyes like he was trying to smite the creature. However, this seemed to have no effect at all, and Castiel noticed he was sinking into the monster, so he took off again.

Dean swung wildly in the monster's grip as he was lowered closer to the monster below. His flailing hands sunk into the body of the creature, and they came away covered in black tar. He lunged upward and tried to pull himself up by the creature's tail, but he didn't get very far. Castiel hovered in midair and grabbed Dean's hand, yanking him upward. He shot up towards the sky, but was pulled short when the length of the creature's tail stopped. Dean cried out as he was almost pulled in half.

**"**Can't you cut the tail off or something?" Dean shouted at Cas, his tarred hands slipping out of the angel's grip.

**"**I don't have a knife or anyth-" Cas shouted, stopping short. His eyes widened as if he had come up with an idea.

**"**Cas, I don't like that look on your face. What are you going to-" Dean gasped as Castiel let go of his hands and let him drop. The tail stopped him from plummeting to the ground, but now it brought Dean in to the black pit even faster, as if it didn't want to lose the prey.

Dean twisted around desperately and saw Cas come toward the creature, his face determined. He sped past the tail extremely quickly, his wing slicing clean through the black spine. Dean began to fall headfirst towards the creature, and he was about to scream when Castiel came out of nowhere and grabbed his jacket, yanking him upright and speeding away from the roiling creature.

There was no sound emanating from the thing, but it crashed from side to side, the remains of its tail whipping from side to side.**  
**Cas set Dean down at a safe distance from the creature. They looked back at it for a moment, but it was now paying them no attention, so they sighed in relief.

Cas turned to Dean. "Are you all right?"

Dean cleared his throat quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just- God, that was close. How about we don't run into any more of those guys anytime soon?"

Castiel nodded, and Dean turned around, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. When he put his hand down, Castiel noticed that Dean had a nasty looking welt on the back of his neck. Cas stepped forward, placing his fingers on the back of his neck.

Dean jumped in surprise. "What are you doin- Ow! What did you do to my neck?"

Cas stepped back, looking worried. "I didn't do that. I think that creature might have stung you with its tail."

Dean brought his hand up quickly to the back of his neck. "It stung me? What does that mean then? Am I going to die? It is poisonous?"

Cas shook his head. "I don't know. I have never encountered this kind of creature before. I suggest we keep walking though. When I flew up into the air, I saw a shift in the landscape that way. It looked like it could be some kind of forest. We should go that way."

Dean nodded, still rubbing the welt on his neck. They turned in the direction that Cas had directed and started walking.

It was only a few minutes later that the poison began to take effect on Dean, and Cas knew they had to reach the forest very quickly before it was too late.


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: So here's the next chapter! The next one should be up next week. Thank you for all the reviews and story alerts! The song referenced in this chapter is "Cheek to Cheek" sung by Fred Astaire. It was also sung by Alastair in Season 4. Anyway, please read and review!

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Chapter 10

Dean began to walk slower and slower, his eyes beginning to droop. For some unexplained reason, the world began to move sideways, and before he knew it he found himself lying on the sand. Dean felt arms around him, and then he was standing up again, leaning against Cas as they kept walking.

**"**We should sit down now. Take a break." Dean slurred, stumbling a bit.

Castiel shook his head, staring grimly ahead. "We can't take that chance. We need to get to this forest. There might be something there that can help you."

Dean giggled. "I don't need help, I just need a nap. Let me lay down. That's what fixes me right up after a hunt with Sammy."

**"**No, Dean. You need an antidote. Quickly." Although he didn't look at Dean, there was an underlying tone of fear that laced Castiel's voice, betraying his worry.

**"**C'mon, Cas." Dean said, shoving Cas lightly and stepping back from him. He held up his hands. "'m fine, see?"

Before Cas could answer, another voice drifted across the sands, making Dean's eyes snap open in surprise.

**"**Heaven, I'm in heaven..." A quiet voice, too light for the menace underlying it, blew through the wind.

Dean spun quickly around, searching wildly throughout the sand. "Did you hear that?"

Cas looked taken aback, taking a moment to listen. "Hear what?"

**"**My heart beats so that I can hardly speak.." The voice came even closer this time, and Dean began to breathe quickly, spinning from side to side.

**"**Where is he coming from? Where is he?" Dean cried, his voice coming out in no more than a squeak. His eyes were wide with fear, and he didn't seem to be listening to a word that Cas was saying.

Castiel stepped forward in concern. "Dean, who is it? What are you hearing?"

Dean turned quickly, and started, stumbling backwards as quickly as possible. Alastair was standing in front of him, in the form he had seen most recently, twirling his fingers.

**"**I seem to find the happiness I seek when we're together, dancing cheek to cheek." Alastair said in a sing-song voice, smiling broadly, his teeth so sharp they could slice the air. He was in human form, the last one they had seen on Earth.

**"**Get away from me!" Dean shouted, his hands held out in self-defense.

Castiel glanced from Dean to the place where Dean was staring. "Dean, there is nobody there."

**"**It's Alastair! He's right there! Can't you see him?" Dean cried, flinching back when Alastair walked forward, circling him and Castiel.

**"**Of course he can't see me, Dean. I don't want to talk to that filthy rat with wings. I'm here to talk to you."

**"**Dean, Alastair isn't there! This is an effect of the poison. We have to get to the forest right now. Come on, Dean." Cas grabbed Dean's arm, but Dean pulled away, still staring straight at Alastair.

**"**I- Sam killed you. You can't be here right now."

Alastair cocked his head to the side. "Can't I? According to you, I'm a freak. And where do freaks go when they die? Of course. Here." He gestured out at the blank sand all around them.

Dean shook his head. "No, no. You're not here."

Alastair stepped forward again. "Yes, I am, Dean. And I really don't think the two of us had a satisfactory conclusion to our relationship. You left quite suddenly."

Dean jumped back. "Get away from me!"

Castiel wrapped his arms around Dean, and began to walk towards the forest again. "Dean, now. We need to go."

Dean struggled in his grip, although Alastair had disappeared for the time being. "Cas, it's Alastair! You need to watch out for him!"

Cas stopped, turning Dean to face him. "Dean, listen to me. Look at me." Dean complied, although his eyes still flicked from side to side as though waiting for Alastair to jump out at him at any moment.

**"**Alastair isn't real. He is a manifestation of the poison in your veins." Dean didn't look convinced, and so Cas changed tactics. He thought back to when Sam's wall was still broken. This brought back painful memories, but he pushed them into the background for the time being. "Listen, when Sam was seeing Lucifer everywhere, what did you tell him?"

**"**I told him that Lucifer wasn't real." Dean mumbled.

**"**Exactly. Lucifer wasn't real, and neither is Alastair. You are hallucinating. You are dying. I want- I need to save you, Dean, and you need to walk with me. Do you trust me?"

The second he said this, Cas shook his head internally. Of course Dean didn't trust him, after all the trouble he had caused. He opened his mouth to rephrase the question, but to his surprise, Dean answered.

**"**Yes, I trust you." Dean said, his breathing coming down to a manageable speed.

Cas nodded, smiling slightly despite himself. "Good. Then believe me when I tell you that we need to get to that forest."

There was a moment of silence, and then Dean nodded reluctantly. "Okay, okay. But hurry."

They began walking again, and although Dean kept whipping his head around to check behind them every few seconds, it seemed as if the adrenaline rush was keeping the hallucinations at bay and helping Dean to concentrate. Cas kept increasing his speed slowly, making sure Dean was keeping up, and soon enough the forest came into view.

There was a darker mass on the horizon, and Cas sighed in relief. Now that it was within eyesight, they should be able to get there soon enough.

However, almost immediately after seeing the forest again, Dean began to droop again. His eyes started closing slowly, and he was stumbling again.

**"**Dean, you need to stay awake. Dean!" Cas shook his shoulders, but Dean only gave him a vacant look and started to topple over.

Cas caught him by the shoulders and started to carry him, stumbling slightly under his weight.

Dean felt himself being supported while walking, and opened his eyes slightly to look over only to find Alastair's grinning face before him, dragging him along the path. Dean yelped and tried to push Alastair off of him, only to find Alastair's grip tighten.

**"**Come now, Dean. Don't tell me you didn't miss all the fun we used to have." Alastair grinned hungrily, and Dean couldn't help but remember the racks and the horror that he had gone through in hell. He pushed harder, but found he couldn't break free from Alastair.

Cas struggled to hold Dean. "Dean! It's only me! Listen to me, Dean!" He tried to get Dean to come back to earth, but he only shouted and struggled.

Cas hoisted Dean up onto his shoulders and started walking as fast as he could, even running as much as he was allowed.. Dean was kicking and throwing punches, but Castiel managed to keep hold of him. As time went on, Dean's blows began to soften, and he started to drop into unconsciousness again.

**"**Dean! You need to listen to me. Dean, don't lose track of my voice. Do not fall asleep. Keep listening to me, Dean." Cas said desperately, still carrying Dean closer to the forest. It was close enough now that he could make out individual features of the trees, and knew they would reach it very soon.

Dean kept his eyes on Cas, and tried to listen to his words, but found his eyelids becoming heavier and heavier, until he couldn't stand to keep them open any longer. The last thing he saw was Castiel's worried blue eyes turned toward him, desperately shouting at him to stay awake. The sound of Cas shouting his name followed him into oblivion, and he finally stopped listening.**  
**Cas turned in determination to the forest, putting on a final burst of speed. He finally reached the edge of the trees, running between the tall trees, a darkness following them in.

Unfortunately, now that he had reached the forest, he found he had no idea how to cure Dean. Breathing heavily now from the weight on his shoulders, Castiel caught sight of a clear river running between the trees. Wildly, he thought maybe splashing water on Dean's face would maybe wake him or help him somehow.

Castiel turned toward the water. Setting the unconscious Dean down carefully next to a tree, he turned around and walked forward, bending down to the clear water. However, before he could take another step, he felt his feet come out from under him, and he flipped into the air, something holding him by the ankles.


End file.
